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**PeteGray** · 20-06-2017, 11:53 AM

I think CSL's are slowly changing hands from the traditional 'owner users', who simply bought the car as it was the best thing available that both provided daily transportation and was also mega fun to drive, to 'collector users' who don't need it for transport but appreciate the quality just as much but probably also have half an eye on it's value. This isn't new and has happened before with the E30 M3, the Lancia Delta Integrale, the original CSL and many other truly special cars - it's not a modern phenomenon.

In my view you shouldn't look at the current price of the CSL as something solely connected to the overall rise in collector cars. The CSL would have picked up in price regardless, obviously not to the same degree, but as with other best of their time cars, prices always rise eventually.

Someone already asked in this thread - where do you find a comparable replacement for similar money, it's really hard. I've got a CLK63 Black series as well as the CSL. The CLK is similar in ethos, a bit faster and more useable perhaps but much more expensive and I'm not sure it's actually more special. Where else can you find the CSL sound, performance and balance in this price range? BMW won't sell you anything comparable now, Jaguar are bringing out their Project 8 (which I've ordered) which could get close as it's a track specific proper engineers car and Mercedes perhaps come closest in the mainstream as they at least try to engineer excitement into their top line cars. Porsche make the GT3 but it's a slightly different market and much more expensive. The point being that the CSL is expensive for good engineering and supply and demand reasons.

There's been a lot of CSL's sitting on the market for a while now but they do change and it's not the exact same group with none selling. There's always a handful of 458 Speciales on the market, 599 GTO's, McLaren 675LT's and so on. Speciale cars tend to change hands regularly and it does take a good few months for a car to sell as there's probably only ever a handful of people looking to buy one at any given point.

A good car will sell but it has to be priced right. The high mileage cars with high prices are always going to struggle more as they don't appeal to a wealthy buyer and are too expensive for someone who still wants one to track and rag around in. I sold my SG 39,000 miler for 56k at the start of summer. It took a while but went to a guy in Fulham who has 8 cars in storage. His storage company (who bought the car from me for him) swap his cars every couple of weeks and he just fancied a CSL. Lots of people with really proper high end car collections are now putting CSL's in their garages and it's this which helps to support the higher price.

I'm selling my 24k miles CSL soon as I don't use it enough. What will I replace it with? Simple, a high mileage CSL.

20-06-2017, 11:53 AM	#10
PeteGray S4 - Getting the hang of it Join Date: Apr 2014 Posts: 135 Casino cash: $3932	I think CSL's are slowly changing hands from the traditional 'owner users', who simply bought the car as it was the best thing available that both provided daily transportation and was also mega fun to drive, to 'collector users' who don't need it for transport but appreciate the quality just as much but probably also have half an eye on it's value. This isn't new and has happened before with the E30 M3, the Lancia Delta Integrale, the original CSL and many other truly special cars - it's not a modern phenomenon. In my view you shouldn't look at the current price of the CSL as something solely connected to the overall rise in collector cars. The CSL would have picked up in price regardless, obviously not to the same degree, but as with other best of their time cars, prices always rise eventually. Someone already asked in this thread - where do you find a comparable replacement for similar money, it's really hard. I've got a CLK63 Black series as well as the CSL. The CLK is similar in ethos, a bit faster and more useable perhaps but much more expensive and I'm not sure it's actually more special. Where else can you find the CSL sound, performance and balance in this price range? BMW won't sell you anything comparable now, Jaguar are bringing out their Project 8 (which I've ordered) which could get close as it's a track specific proper engineers car and Mercedes perhaps come closest in the mainstream as they at least try to engineer excitement into their top line cars. Porsche make the GT3 but it's a slightly different market and much more expensive. The point being that the CSL is expensive for good engineering and supply and demand reasons. There's been a lot of CSL's sitting on the market for a while now but they do change and it's not the exact same group with none selling. There's always a handful of 458 Speciales on the market, 599 GTO's, McLaren 675LT's and so on. Speciale cars tend to change hands regularly and it does take a good few months for a car to sell as there's probably only ever a handful of people looking to buy one at any given point. A good car will sell but it has to be priced right. The high mileage cars with high prices are always going to struggle more as they don't appeal to a wealthy buyer and are too expensive for someone who still wants one to track and rag around in. I sold my SG 39,000 miler for 56k at the start of summer. It took a while but went to a guy in Fulham who has 8 cars in storage. His storage company (who bought the car from me for him) swap his cars every couple of weeks and he just fancied a CSL. Lots of people with really proper high end car collections are now putting CSL's in their garages and it's this which helps to support the higher price. I'm selling my 24k miles CSL soon as I don't use it enough. What will I replace it with? Simple, a high mileage CSL.